CHE is again a signatory on a letter to the G20 from the Green Economy coalition, a small but broad-based group urging action from the G20 on environmental issues. The Green Economy Coalition was founded in March 2009 in Switzerland and consists of members from the environment, development, business, labour and consumer sectors. In this letter, the Coalition calls upon the G20 to follow through on its commitment to accelerate the transition to a green economy, with urgent and decisive action to:

(1) invest considerably more in clean energy and energy efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to create new green jobs and a fair transition for transforming traditional jobs into sustainable ones, and to generate secure and sustainable access to energy;

(2) honour existing ODA commitments, and mobilize new funds for developing countries through innovative financial mechanisms, and ensure that all financial resources contribute to an inclusive and sustainable recovery in accordance with the priorities of developing countries;

(3) support ongoing efforts to quantify environmental values such as The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative, and invest in ecosystem-based measures such as financing Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) which can assist in combating climate change and be a key anti-poverty and adaptation measure;

(4) encourage transparency, and achieve a robust and visionary deal on climate change in Copenhagen later this year, by integrating environment and development as well as business and labour issues, to lay the foundations for a fair and green economy for the 21st Century.

The letter can be downloaded here: http://www.che.ac.uk/downloads/coalition_letter_2.pdf.

The Melting Pot, Edinburgh’s incubator for social innovation, founded by CHE fellow Claire Carpenter, will celebrate its 2nd birthday on Thursday 1 October 2009. The Melting Pot is a not-for-profit social enterprise that aims to inspire and support people to realise their ideas for a better world. It provides shared workspace for people working for social, economic or environmental well-being, and publicly available meeting and events space. For more information, please see www.themeltingpotedinburgh.org.uk.

Claire writes: It seems like a life-time ago from the writing of my MSc thesis, and sharing this idea in its infancy and formation stage with a number of student cohorts over the years... Thank you always for your positive reception and encouragement. We all need positive reflectors to help us grow.

To celebrate the big day, The Melting Pot is throwing open the doors of its city centre space at 5 Rose Street from 6-9pm on 1st October. As well as members, friends and supporters, they’re inviting anyone who’s curious about the space. Anyone interested in attending the event should contact the team on 0131 243 2626 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

As well as its second birthday, The Melting Pot is also celebrating news of a £100,000 investment from the Scottish Government’s Third Sector Enterprise Fund. The award will enable the innovative social enterprise to introduce an Assisted Places scheme and a Volunteer Programme.

Graduate Arran Stibbe has edited The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: Skills for a Changing World, which was published by Green Books in August 2009. The handbook takes a sharp look at the skills, attributes and competencies that learners will need for surviving and thriving in the 21st century. Critical of some mainstream skills agendas which focus narrowly on skills for industrialisation and economic expansion at all costs, the book instead promotes a more open-ended approach including abilities such as values reflection, ecological intelligence, and critical awareness of the social structures that underpin unsustainable societies.

The resource will be useful for lecturers, teachers and students across all study areas, and authors include leading sustainability educators as well as specialists from a wide range of disciplines from engineering to art - for example, Satish Kumar, John Naish, Stephen Sterling, Greg Garrard, Anne Phillips, Kim Polistina, John Blewitt, Stephan Harding, and Zoe Robinson, along with former CHE Academic Board member Justin Kenrick and graduate Myshele Goldberg.

In addition to a paperback book, a free multimedia resource has been launched with interviews and chapters by more than forty educators, on www.sustainability-literacy.org.

MSc student Martin Glegg is involved in a grassroots campaign near Aberdeen. From another member of the campaign, Jenny Smith: Last year the property tycoon Donald Trump, over-riding environmental planning laws and the Local Housing and Structure Plans, managed to gain outline planning permission for a golf course on the sand dunes at the Menie Estate, Balmedie, just north of Aberdeen. The plans include a 10-story, 450-room hotel visible from Aberdeen, a conference centre, 500 luxury homes, and a 400-bed hostel for workers - effectively a gated community for the wealthy, surrounded by a wooden palisade fence.

To resist enclosure and protect local culture and biodiversity, a campaign group was formed - "Tripping up Trump" - which now has over 1,000 members. Their website, www.trippinguptrump.com, includes a petition with the support of over 6,000 people, and the group is seeking as much support as possible in advance of a council debate on 1st October.

Recently, the issue has gained new urgency. Failing to convince a few remaining locals and property owners to sell their houses, Trump has applied to Aberdeenshire Council to implement a compulsory purchase order for each property. To date, Compulsory Purchase has only ever been used for the requirements of infrastructure, motorways, hospitals, etc. If this order goes ahead, a precedent will be set across the country whereby people can be cleared from their homes for economic motive - a sort of latter-day "clearances" akin to the highland clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Graduate Joanne Baker has co-authored an environmental law book, which grew out of her MSc dissertation in 2002. Uranium in Iraq: The Poisonous Legacy of the Iraq Wars is available from Vandeplas Publishing. From the publisher's website:

This book has been written out of concerns surrounding the changing health patterns in Iraq since 1991 and, in particular, the increase in cancers and genetic birth defects amongst children. The subject is fraught with difficulty because of the uncertain nature of both cause and effect. The combination of war and sanctions in Iraq over several decades has created a highly toxic environment, and resistance to disease has become severely compromised by malnutrition, polluted water systems, psychological distress, and a failing health system. This book, however, works on the supposition that the military use of uranium has the potential to be a serious contributing factor to the illnesses besetting the Iraqi population. The book outlines environmental problems and legal implications of the contamination of Iraq due to the use of depleted uranium in military weapons used during the Gulf Wars.

MSc student James Taylor has been working for a year at the British Film Institute (BFI) National Archive, on a project called InView, which provides online access to a large amount of audiovisual material to higher education in the UK. The material is collected under five themes: Education; Environment; Health; Immigration, Race & Equality; and Industry & Economy. It draws on collections ranging from silent film on social issues, cinema newsreels, films made by state corporations and the Central office of Information through to BBC current affairs programmes, party political broadcasts and parliamentary recordings. All the material is streamable or downloadable, at http://www.bfi.org.uk/inview.

James writes: My role in the project has been selecting, cataloguing and writing about the material featured. This has given me an opportunity to write about some of the sub-themes featured under the Environment heading: Energy; Farming & Forestry; Pollution & the Environment; and Sustainability & Conservation. I have also written contextual pieces about many of the films featured including a 1938 film promoting national savings (that touches on issues of community land ownership), a 1968 interview with Tariq Ali, a 1977 Labour Conference debate on nuclear weapons, and a 1987 piece promoting nuclear power sponsored by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Other material accessible through the site of possible interest to a human ecology audience includes documentaries on E.F.Schumacher, ozone depletion, global warming, organic farming, the 1984 miners’ strike, Anglo-Irish relations, poor housing conditions and much more. Wider public access to much of the featured material will follow in the next few years through the project ‘A Portrait of Britain,’ and a range of other material can already be accessed electronically in schools and public libraries through BFI Screenonline: http://www.screenoline.org.uk. The UK has a range of public film and video archives allowing onsite viewing of materials at http://bufvc.ac.uk/faf/.

For anyone based in or around Glasgow, graduate Lusi Alderslowe will be teaching an Introduction to Permaculture course on Saturday 23rd January, 10 am - 4 pm, in the Pollok Park Visitors' Centre, at the Pollok House stables. Please e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for more details. This latest course comes after several successful permaculture events around Scotland - details on the Bodhi eco-project website: www.bodhi-eco-project.org.uk, click "latest newsletter" on the left-hand side. Additionally, Lusi's "nurture in nature" group (see this article was recently featured in Green Parenting magazine.

So it was wading that did it –
let us learn to walk on two legs
when we had loads to carry
across the great rivers that watered our life
To lift what we hold precious
above the flood, to carry a-cross
to the other side - we need arms
free and strong
St Christopher carrying Jesus as child
weighed down with all our burdens
through and over the river
is an archetype then for upright man?

Tessa Ransford is a CHE fellow and former tutor. Her latest book of new and selected poems, Not Just Moonshine, is available from Luath Press, and her website is www.wisdomfield.com.